OP
Spiveyman
Platinum Member
Hey y'all, I've had a couple of people ask me about the cattle, so I thought I'd mention here what happened to them in case others were curious. Pretty much stuff happens, and to me it's like stuff on steroids happens. I had a buddy tell me one time the he never believed in luck until he met me, and he still doesn't believe in good luck, but now he believes in back luck. (I might have mentioned that in this thread already, sorry if so...) Anyway, a series of unfortunate events led to the death of I think the final count was 15 or so of my cattle.
2007 was a pretty bad drought year here in KY. I had the heard at my partner's farm on 30 acres. Way too many cattle for that small of a farm. Throw the drought on top of that, with thin grass and makes for a pretty thin herd of Texas Longhorns, which are known for being lean already. I had planned to move them to my 170 acres sometime in Aug of that year but had a hard time getting my partner motivated to actually get it done, so it was October before we moved them. Heading into the colder months the herd was very lean. They started dying on December 25, 2007 and the vet was dumbfounded. He could not figure out what was killing them. After a handfull had passed we had one taken to the UK Animal Diagnostic center. They tested positive for coccidia (sp?) but not at a level that should have been high enough to cause death. They died of adema ultimately, and my vet explained that when the wether turns cold cattle use up their fat reserves to stay warm. My cattle basically had no fat reserves, so the vet said that their bodies would start to attack the muscle mass and when that happens it introduces fluid in the blood that gets deposited in the lungs. The wether was very wet that fall/winter, and would get warm then freeze over and over again. He said that was perfect for the coccidia to grow in the wet ground where we were feeding hay. The cattle would lay on the hay to stay dry/warm and then turn around and eat that hay. The coccidia feed off of the protein in the blood, which caused their bodies to attack the muscle mass even more aggressively speeding up the adema process. The answer was pretty simple, some medicine to kill the coccidia and protein tubs to keep their bodies from robbing the muscle of protein. As soon as I did that, we never lost another one. Guess that 100% grass fed deal has some draw backs when you get in a situation like this. The vet said that if any of those situations had been different, the drought, the wet fall, the varrying winter temp, the leanness of the breed... etc. that I probably would not have lost the cattle. I'll file that on in the memory banks for when I get back to being a rancher.
2007 was a pretty bad drought year here in KY. I had the heard at my partner's farm on 30 acres. Way too many cattle for that small of a farm. Throw the drought on top of that, with thin grass and makes for a pretty thin herd of Texas Longhorns, which are known for being lean already. I had planned to move them to my 170 acres sometime in Aug of that year but had a hard time getting my partner motivated to actually get it done, so it was October before we moved them. Heading into the colder months the herd was very lean. They started dying on December 25, 2007 and the vet was dumbfounded. He could not figure out what was killing them. After a handfull had passed we had one taken to the UK Animal Diagnostic center. They tested positive for coccidia (sp?) but not at a level that should have been high enough to cause death. They died of adema ultimately, and my vet explained that when the wether turns cold cattle use up their fat reserves to stay warm. My cattle basically had no fat reserves, so the vet said that their bodies would start to attack the muscle mass and when that happens it introduces fluid in the blood that gets deposited in the lungs. The wether was very wet that fall/winter, and would get warm then freeze over and over again. He said that was perfect for the coccidia to grow in the wet ground where we were feeding hay. The cattle would lay on the hay to stay dry/warm and then turn around and eat that hay. The coccidia feed off of the protein in the blood, which caused their bodies to attack the muscle mass even more aggressively speeding up the adema process. The answer was pretty simple, some medicine to kill the coccidia and protein tubs to keep their bodies from robbing the muscle of protein. As soon as I did that, we never lost another one. Guess that 100% grass fed deal has some draw backs when you get in a situation like this. The vet said that if any of those situations had been different, the drought, the wet fall, the varrying winter temp, the leanness of the breed... etc. that I probably would not have lost the cattle. I'll file that on in the memory banks for when I get back to being a rancher.
Surely I can figure out a clever way to get these stumps out. I'll get a picture next time I'm at the farm so that you all can all laugh at the state of the yard. It seemed like such a great idea when I was standing in the yard with a new Stihl chainsaw! 
